Breast Cancer Awareness Month: An Update on My Mom

It’s been a while since I’ve talked about my mom in my posts. Matter of fact, I really only wrote one post about her being diagnosed with Stage 3 Breast Cancer (you can read that post here) and with Breast Cancer Awareness Month upon us, I figured now was as good a time as any to update you all on how she is doing.

Having been diagnosed in December, it’s been a long year. For me yes, but for her I’m sure it’s been an eternity. My momma completed chemotherapy, followed by a mastectomy and just completed her final radiation treatment last week (perfect timing, eh?!). During all of this, she’s been extremely sick, with little to no appetite, and battled every day with very low white blood cell counts, which ultimately left her hospitalized a couple of times. During this long road, she lost her hair, she lost weight, she lost the chance to see her granddaughter born, she lost her breast (among various other things), but in the end – she won the war!

After her mastectomy in July, the doctor was pleased that the pathology report came back from her surgery with no cancerous tissue! As a precaution, the doctor advised that my mom complete radiation treatment – and as any scared cancer survivor would do – she did as her doctor told her to do!

She finished her last radiation treatment last week, just in time to raise awareness about a cause that will remain near and dear to our hearts forever!

And while I’m ecstatic for my mom and so proud of her for how much she endured, there are women everywhere that are not as fortunate. And with this, I will passionately advocate for awareness and encourage support to national and local programs that fund research for a cure, and that help with any and all aspects of this disease.

So that leaves us with how YOU can get involved?

First of all, you can stop reading this post and go check your breast for any abnormalities. If you’re not sure how, you can follow the steps provided here. After you’re done with this, come back and finish reading the post.

No seriously – stop reading and go check! Do it yourself, have a spouse or friend check or schedule an appointment with your doctor – but make sure you check!

Now that you’ve completed your self-examination, it’s time to get involved.

There are plenty of ways to get involved – volunteer at your local charities, walk for a cure or part ways with some of your paycheck and donate it. But I understand that there is no ‘one size fits all’ way to do good in this world. So this October, I’ll also be purchasing items that I know will give back to the greater good..and these are products I’ll most likely need anyway (most likely being the operative word – because do I really need more beauty products, or candles or jewelry lol).

If October finds you with an abundance of cash and you decide you can part with a dollar or two – I know daughters, mothers, cousins, friends, sisters, brothers, fathers, children, pets, etc. will be eternally grateful.